Square Bale Wrapper

Bales are stacked in various methods or sandwiched between timber framing, sometimes requiring pins made from metal rebar to prevent bales from shifting. Based on local knowledge, materials, needs and budget, straw-bale buildings involve a community of...

Water in well.Make sure bales stay damp. If you purchase at the beginning of the planting season, you can condition them in a two-week period. Consider using a soaker hose for ease of irrigation.Straw bale garden maintenance will include regular fertilization...

Do not cut or sever the twine holding the bale together. The bale will become hot as the straw begins to compost, but the straw should cool down and be ready for planting by the 12th or 14th day.Sprinkle 1 cup of a balanced granular fertilizer with a...

Soaking may require as much as 15 gallons of water per bale. Check the temperature of the bales on the 11th day. Firm, tightly tied hay or straw bales make a quick and easy-to-use organic raised bed for growing strawberries.

Have Adequate Help In theory, with machines a single person can bay hale. If you have people riding the hay wagon to stack the hay bales as the bales are produced, let them work in shifts so that no one is out in the sun for too long at a time.

Place the hay 6 inches deep and spread it out 6 inches to each side of the row, so that the row is at least 1 foot wide and 6 inches deep.Add more straw as the plants begin to peek through, in order to keep the base of the plant entirely covered.

The shorter front allows you to reach into the square to shovel andweekly and the higher walls help keep in the heat to make the materials rot faster.Once the compost is complete, you'll notice that part of the walls have begun to incorporate themselves...

Why build with straw bales? Further, they have officially tested to be three times as fire resistant during ASTM testing as a conventional wall system. These energy-efficient structures are catching the attention of those who are living a sustainable,...

We've got a few things that might persuade you. Need some convincing to start a garden with hay bales? This simple raised-bed technique safely eliminates the need to stoop all the way to the ground, reducing many injury concerns associated with in-ground...

Spread it on your garden as composted mulch, or allow it to “cook” an additional two to three months for finished compost. If your pile starts to smell, turn it—it's probably too wet and needs oxygen: Turning the pile will help speed the decomposition...

Either ground-driven Newer Spreader can be pulled with a small garden tractor, ATV or utility vehicle. The company currently offers 12 models with scores of options and 59 attachments ranging from augers, backhoes and bale-fork attachments to unusual...

It's also a potential source of fire, putting your barn in jeopardy should it ignite. Sunlight bleaches hay, causing it to lose nutritional value, especially protein and vitamin A.

I do a lot of lectures at garden clubs. They are bales that have gotten wet or can't be sold as "good" for some other reason, but they work fine for growing. Today I would like to share one of my favorite methods of growing plants: in partially decomposed...

More liquid fertilizer is applied when the wheat comes out of dormancy in the spring. He runs soil tests before planting seeds to find out if the soil needs any nutrients added to it before planting.

You can just set a round bale in the pasture and let the animals go after it, or you can cut the strings and unroll the bale, spreading out the forage. The location of your hay feeding routine has an effect on how much hay your animals waste.

Long before balers, country folk hayed with scythes and pitchforks , a time-consuming, backbreaking task that was lightened somewhat with the invention of the horse-drawn sickle mower and stacker, along with grappling hook apparatus designed to lift cured...

The “Healthy Horse” app allows horse owners and professionals to estimate the body weight of various adult horses—Arabians, ponies, stock, saddle and miniature—by entering height, body length, neck and girth circumference.

Decrease waste and enhance herd health by implementing an appropriate feeding system for forage and supplemental feeds. As you implement your winter feeding program, continue to pay close attention to your cows' body condition scores , making adjustments...

My wife and I joke that one “how to” publication we get runs the same story every issue, just changing a detail or two on the project. I'll probably just hold the nail like I always have and hit my thumb again like I often do.

Mom and Dad have had trouble buying good hay this year. Each grazing species reacts slightly differently to fescue toxosis. Eradicating ultra-hardy fescue isn't easy, nor is replacing it with new, improved endophyte-free fescues.

After all, lifting square bales that weigh about 50 pounds, by means of two pieces of twine—often while using just one hand—guarantees blisters if your hands aren't appropriately protected.

Harvesting Hay When harvesting quality hay, there are a couple of factors to consider: How Many Cuttings? Growing quality hay requires a lot of patience and effort, but these tips should help get you started.

All other photos are by the author. Add the wine if you are using it and raise the heat to evaporate the wine.Add the simmering vegetable broth (or boiling water and a little salt) 1 cup at a time, stirring frequently with a long wooden spoon or fork,...

Cotton bales are valued according to the attributes of the cotton fiber, such as its length, color and strength.Clean the bales at a textile mill and put the longest fibers into a carding machine.

Always start with one and buy more if it's needed. Check the depth of the layer in between rows after about six weeks. Keep the straw away from the leaves and stems of the plants, as it may spread fungus to your garden crops.Straw will compost pretty...

So, on the "hot" and "cold" composting spectrum, this particular pile was Ice Nine. So I left things as they were, aside from planting a few more melons & some cosmos there as well.So here's where we stand in mid-July: As you can see, there are blooming...

However, research conducted at Purdue University showed wastage of 22.6 to 38 percent occurred when big bales of hay were fed directly on the ground, so when feeding big bales, use a feeder! Hay-Mizer's 8-foot square, big bale feeder is engineered to...